In 2000, we opened Ruckman Haus, located in the heart of San Antonio's historic Alta Vista district. Over thirteen years, we welcomed thousands of wonderful people- our guests- to San Antonio, a city rich with the history of Texas and Old Mexico. Although we've closed as a B&B, we have decided to keep this site active, for the enjoyment of our family and friends, our previous guests and you. Prudence and Ron Ruckman
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Hello, and Welcome!
This is Prudence Ruckman, and I would like to tell you about Ruckman Haus.
The house itself was originally a private home dating from the turn of the century that retained all of the arts and crafts architecture and design of that era. It is an excellent example of the comfort that city dwellers brought to what was then the frontier, and a beautiful reminder of the time when prominent citizens built houses that were both homes and
showplaces.
The house was always well kept up but, even so, after we purchased it in 2000, we undertook an extensive, year-long renovation. That project was to convert it from the home of a prominent doctor into a beautiful B&B, with all the modern conveniences.
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Of course, we paid a great deal of attention to the guest rooms and suites. Each was renovated to include a private bath, of course, and we decided to give each one its own individual style. We added all the modern conveniences that today's business and pleasure travelers are used to, including individual A/C and heating systems. We created a rooftop sundeck for one of the suites, and built a large covered deck on the west side of the house for all our guests to use. A few years into our business, we also added a large, private balcony at the back of the house and gave two of our suites access to it.
Our objective was to make sure that each and every one of our guests would have not only the most comfortable room or suite we could provide, but also comfortable and enjoyable indoor and outdoor public spaces.
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On the east side of the house there was originally a covered patio and a few plantings. I wanted to create a quiet garden with a waterfall, and over our first few years, we completely re-landscaped the entire east side area. I first planned the garden, and then, with a lot of hard work and the help of professionals, created a space for our guests the we thought was truly remarkable. I enjoyed planting the flowers, shrubs and trees that enhance the relaxing experience. Over the years, our East Garden became one of the nicest features of the entire home.
As for the "breakfast" part of "bed and breakfast," Ron became the chef while I enjoyed serving our guests. Ron created an extremely varied breakfast menu with his signature dishes, which included Eggs Benedict, Huevos Ruckmananza (an original recipe), strawberry parfait, triple sec oranges, and waffles with fresh fruit. Guests ate either in the large dining room at the antique refectory table, or in the garden by the waterfall- an area that was always shady and inviting.
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Whether our guests were visiting San Antonio for business or pleasure, in addition to offering them not only a wonderful environment in which to stay, and an ideal central location, we enjoyed using our expertise as longtime San Antonio residents to offer advice on places to go, things to see and places to eat. We added a section to our website that detailed many of these attractions, and we have decided to leave that information here, on what is now more of a personal web page.
For over thirteen years, we have enjoyed being hosts, showing off our city and the historic area in which we live. Many of our guests visited stayed with us repeatedly, and not just a few of them became friends with whom we like to stay in touch. This year, however, we have decided to embark on a new phase of our lives. As pleasurable as being innkeepers and hosts has been, we would like to travel and spend more time with friends and family. Sadly, we can't do that and at the same time be the kinds of hosts we would want to be.
So we decided to close Ruckman Haus as an active B&B in mid-June of 2014. We will be moving from the apartment we maintained over our garage building into the house itself, combining a couple of the guest rooms into our personal retreat. We will be retaining a couple of the other rooms as guest rooms for our friends and family who come to visit- and some of these friends will include folks who began as guests of the B&B.
This website will remain, but become now our Home Page (quite literally) as we chronicle this new incarnation of Ruckman Haus. If you've stayed with us before, we want to thank you for allowing us to be your hosts in our city. If you like, you can keep up with us here on our site. Our email address (see below) will remain the same. But whether you are a friend, former guest or casual Internet surfer, we'd be pleased if you browsed this site often to watch Ruckman Haus evolve and to follow us on our travels.
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On a second stay with us here at Ruckman Haus, Sharon Arnoldi, a professional photographer from Highlands Ranch, Colorado (south of Denver) brought her cameras and used our home as the subject for many wonderful photographs. We were very enamored of them and when we asked, she very graciously granted us permission to use some of them on this site. We are very grateful to her for enhancing these pages, and you should definitely visit her own Web site and look at the amazing work she does. Just click on her logo at left, or visit www.sharonsphoto.com. |
stay@ruckmanhaus.com